The Darkness In a Lions Heart
by JakeKontan
Summary: Takes place 4 years after the events of the D-Reaper. Jeri has been feeling down lately, the remnants of the D-Reaper within, now plague her mind with horrible nightmares, and she begins to miss Leomon even more. Can Kouichi save her?


**Disclaimer and that crap: I do not own digimon and that stuff blah blah blah.**

* * *

Jeri was sure she was having a nightmare.

She wanted to wake up. She wanted to scream and just run but she couldn't. She was frozen in place. So the nightmare continued. Jeri watched as her friends went down, one by one. First Justimon, who became Ryo and Cyberdramon again. She wanted to look away as he looked at her with pleading eyes as his body was swallowed by the she couldn't. Her eyes were glued to his receding form. Ryo's screams were haunting. Cyberdramon looked directly at her and growled, almost if saying: "He died for you." He howled as the cords punctured his chest and he faded away.A pang of pain ringed in her chest.

_You did this..._

Next was Henry and Terriermon, who screamed in pain as the cable reaper ripped him apart. Terriermon tried to help but with one swing of a cable was deleted. She feel to her knees, tears leaking out of her eyes. Jeri wanted to just crawl up in a ball and look away, but she was forced to watch her worst nightmares happen in front of her. "Stop...Please stop..." She murmured, her words coming out cracked and broken. The pain in her chest grew. "Please..."

_This is your fault..._

Rika screamed in pain as the optimizer shot a blue blast of energy crashed into Sakuyamon's back. She slipped from her bio-merge and fell into the crimson cables, slowly sinking inside with a dead look in her eyes. Renamon was deleted the moment that blast had hit. Jeri was now almost broken. Her best friend had just died in front of her. "It's just a dream...It's just a dream..." she sobbed. But how could this be a dream? Their screams where so clear in her head, they were haunting her. The pain grew again, this time worst than before.

_They died for you..._

No! They are not dead. This is just a dream! Jeri kept telling herself. She looked up from her puddle of tears, thinking they would just reappear and everything would be fine. But the wicked nightmare continued that was left alive was Takato.

Takato. Yes! Takato! He could surely save her from this nightmare! Jeri's body filled with hope. She had to believe in Takato. He was all that was left. She looked up to watch him fight and was met with a blood-curling scream.

Then she saw something she never, _ever _wanted to see.

Gallantmon laid there, a tentacle with a blade driven through the center of his armor. Her heart almost stopped.

He laid there, motionless. His eyes not visible.

"TAKATO!" Jeri screamed, watching the D-reaper remove the tentacle and Gallantmon split into two beings. A disappearing Guilmon and a bloody Takato.

_Your fault..._

"No..." she cried. Jeri watched, hoping he would get up and be fine, but he didn't. He just laid there, dead. Bleeding until his blood ran dry.

Then the D-Reaper turned to Jeri. It spat something at her direction. She heard a crack and looked up to see her younger self. Her eyes where a sickening yellow and her skin was awfully pale. "_**You did** **this...**_" She said, reaching out and grabbing Jeri's neck. "_**You killed Takato..**_" The other Jeri spoke, tightening her grip on Jeri's throat. "_**THIS IS YOUR**_**_ FAULT_!**" She screamed, now choking Jeri.

Jeri was crying. She knew it was her fault and she couldn't do anything about it.

"Someone...Help me..." She sobbed. The pain grew in her heart, it got worse and worst until she thought her heart would explode. "H-help me...Please..."She hiccuped. The evil Jeri formed a wicked smile on her face. "_**Die**_." She said, now fully choking Jeri.

As Jeri felt all life slipping away from her, the copy released her. Dropping to the ground, she took a huge gulp of fresh air before coughing wildly, She looked up at the evil form of herself to see a strange pheomenon. Evil Jeri was clawing at her chest, as if there was something in it."_**No! Go** **away!**"_ Shadow Jeri cried. Not a moment passed when a spike of black material shot out of her heart. "_**Damn You**_!"She screeched,clawing at it again before crumbling into dust. Jeri was confused. What was going on? One thing was clear though. What ever that black spike is, it just saved her life.

Then the black spike slowly melted, reforming itself. Growing larger and larger until it looked like a shadowy silhouette of a boy, no older than she was. The shadow turned towards her and started walking slowly towards her.

Jeri backed away, scared of the new being in her nightmare. The shadow moved closer, closer until it was in front of her.

She closed her eyes in fear of what to come.

Nothing ever did.

She opened an eye to see the Shadow, kneeling down and holding out his hand, to help her up off the ground. Surprised, she took the hand and willingly let the shadow help her back onto her feet. "Thank you." she said. The being nodded in response. On closer inspection of the being, Jeri noticed traces of a gold color shown about his body. The roar of the D-Reaper broke the silence, mad at the destruction of shadow Jeri. Jeri moved to back away from the frightening monster, but the gentle shadow grabbed her hand.

The being shook his head, as if trying to tell to not run away. She gave a frightened look at the shadow, but for some reason, Jeri felt like she could trust him. "What?" Jeri wondered. The being chuckled and walked forward, still holding on to Jeri, she walked with him. They got to the edge of her little bubble before he drew his right arm back, then jabbed his arm right into it. The whole inner world started to shake. Then the being pushed his arm in even further. Jeri wanted to run, she was so scared, frightened at the menacing avatar-like monster. The D-Reaper was getting closer and closer, but the shadow ignored it, like it wasn't even there. _Isn't this guy afraid of anything? _She wondered.

"Stop-" Jeri stuttered, hoping for him to listen and back away from the beast, the D-Reaper had getting closer to her bubble than it had ever gotten before. It swung a cable tentacle at her, the moment it was about to impact, the bubble cracked, and the D-Reaper howled in pain. Jeri realized then what the shadow was doing. _H-he's drawing back the D-Reaper!_

She ran up right next to him and pressed her arm into the bubble as well. "I-I want to help!" she croaked out. That nightmare creature of hers was still getting closer and closer. Jeri closed her arms and drove her arm deep into the bubble. The outside felt squishy, like jello.

With a final shove of both their arms until they were all the way outside the bubble, the picture of the nightmare monster cracked even more, then shattered completely. "W-what? It..wasn't real? It wasn't real!" Jeri stared in awe. No longer was she in that small, cold bubble that only showed her those vile nightmares. She was on a blank canvas, a whole world. This was something new for her. She looked back to see that the shadow was still there, staring at her, she wondered why it was still here. The shadow lowered it's arm and released Jeri.

"_C-create...A ..new..World.._" The shadow spoke. Jeri was a bit startled, she didn't expect it to talk. Then she realized what it wanted her to do. She took a firm stand on the ground before closer her eyes, imaging a nice, warm place from her memories. She opened one eye to see a wave of color flow out of her, it covered the ground, grass and plants forming where it once was. When the array faded, Jeri found herself in Shibuya park in front of the fountain, the place were she met Leomon.

The shadow smiled, showing his white teeth once more. Jeri smiled back. "Thank you." She whispered. The shadow bowed. Realizing it's job was done, the shadow walked into the fountain, fading away into little particles of black. "Thank you.." Jeri murmured.

Then she woke up.


End file.
